Angry Airline Passenger Punches Headrest When Woman Reclines Her Seat

By Bill GalluccioFeb 13, 2020

A woman on a recent American Airlines flight from New Orleans to Charlotte upset the passenger behind her when she decided to recline her seat. The passenger started punching the back of her seat, and the flight crew refused to do anything to stop it.

After the man hit her seat nine times, Wendi Williams started recording and then shared a video of the incident on Twitter.

"@BravoAndy Here’s a great jackhole! He was angry that I reclined my seat and punched it about 9 times - HARD, at which point I began videoing him, and he resigned to this behavior. The other jackhole is the @AmericanAir flight attendant who reprimanded me and offered him rum!," she wrote.

To make matters worse, when Williams complained to one of the flight attendants, instead of telling the man to stop, they reprimanded her for recording the man.

When American Airlines responded to her tweet, asking her to send them a direct message to try to resolve the issue, she accused of them trying to keep the incident quiet.

"You clearly want me to do this quietly through a DM. I'm done being quiet! I've had extensive neck surgeries - my cervical spine is completely fused ... I've lost time at work, had to visit a doctor, got x-rays, and have (had) horrible headaches for a week," she explained.

While Williams received some sympathy online, a few people blamed her and said that nobody should recline their seat while flying.

"When you recline you're invading the space of the other passenger and ruining their experience. You've had a shocker here Wendy," @BoxingFanatic_ said.

"I'm a frequent flier and I despise people like you who jam your seat into others knees and then wonder why they get upset, then have the unmitigated gall to post it on the World Wide Interweb as if that individual is the bad person," @Pro_Nuke replied.

Not everybody agreed, with some people pointing out that the seats are designed to recline, and passengers have every right to do so.

"It's ridiculous for ppl to say you shouldn't recline your seat. It's an option for a reason. You're fully within your right. If he needs more room, he should have gotten a seat that accommodated that. Why should you be inconvenienced? You paid for your seat," @MelissaGraver said.

American Airlines issued a brief statement saying they are investigating the matter.